Walking and/or cycling muscles

[wearwell]

So it's down to stretching exercises, riding a fixie or more walking.

Surely to get the benefits of (say) a 4 hour walk by stretching, you need to do 4 hours of stretching?

Fixie sounds good for walking, except you are restricted to on road and pushing a bike up a hill. Not if I can avoid it!

So more walking then.

The far Cuillins are pullin' me away ... step I wi' my cromack to the road. ... You've never smelled the tangle o' the Isles. etc etc

[boblo]

Trouble is, if you're on a multi day tour, by the end of each long day in the saddle, you won't have time left to do your 'stuff' and spend 4 hours stretching. I've tried the stretching thing on long tours but it doesn't really help me.

[531colin]

Stretching (5 mins) will offset the stiffness produced by repetitive exercise with restricted movement range - ie. cycling.
Thats it......it won't turn you into Sir Harry Lauder......hopefully!!

[reohn2]

Surely to get the benefits of (say) a 4 hour walk by stretching, you need to do 4 hours of stretching?

Nope!
Five minutes max a day will loosen legs after exercise,20 minutes every other day and you have a full stretching regeme,if you want to make it part of an exercise program that will really help see a good Yoga teacher.
If you want to see the results of riding a lifetime without any form of stretching go to the York rally and take a look around, they're easily spotted, they're the ones with the hunched over look that don't seem to be able to quite straighten the knees out and have to get on the bike either by laying it over a bit or throwing their leg over the handlebars,if you engage one of them in conversation from the side they'll have to turn the whole of their upper body to face you as their neck is set straight ahead.
Of course you have the freedom (or lack of it) not to stretch at all, but the results are there to be seen.

[Jonty]

Another alternative is to do another exercise which stretches and relaxes your muscles such as swimming. I also recommend boxing for core and upper body strength and stretching.
jonty

[Mick F]

I may find time for stretching exercises, but going swimming or trying boxing?

I have enough to do, thank you.

My days are filled with cycling, housework, gardening, boozing down at the pub, eating, sleeping, chatting on here, cooking, listening to Radio4, cutting wood.
(not necessarily all at the same time, or all of them in any one day!)

[boblo]

5 mins stretching per day does not do it (it being stopping sore legs when hillwalking/running after lots of cycling).

When on longer tours,I stretch for more than 5 mins per day before and after riding and even ice bath or very very cold shower after riding to aid muscle recovery. I still find, despite this, my legs get more and more useless for hill walking the more miles I do.

I know that when I get back from a tour, I'll need to start running straight away to get back to normal. This usually starts with shorter runs of 1-2 miles on the flat building to my usual 8 plus hilly miles over a week or so. This is obviously a form of cross training but I'm certainly not going to be doing this on tour!

I'm not sure there is a 'fix'.

[byegad]

Walking down hill hurts because you're knees are old

No.
Not true, unless I was born old!
My knees have ALWAYS hurt walking down hill.

I can run down hills and run down stairs without pain, the problem is holding back and going down in a controlled fashion.

Perhaps I was born to be a cyclist.

Ah! its simple then,you're genetically imperfect

No he's a more evolved specimen. Bikes are an advancement, cyclists more so!

[ChrisButch]

I've alternated cycling with hillwalking and climbing all my life. Although this seems irrational for the various physiological reasons already described on this thread, I've always found that if I 'm cycling fit and then go off for a fortnight's Munro-bagging or whatever, then I'm also fit for the hills. It doesn't, however, work the other way round. When I'm on the bike for the first time after a hillwalking holiday, it's a real struggle - and remains so for a week or so. And that's despite a reasonably disciplined stretching regime.

[reohn2]

Another alternative is to do another exercise which stretches and relaxes your muscles such as swimming. I also recommend boxing for core and upper body strength and stretching.
jonty

Neither will.

[Ray]

No he's a more evolved specimen. Bikes are an advancement, cyclists more so!

Get the T-shirt -
http://www.cafepress.co.uk/+evolution_o ... t,58368648

Ray